I have been using this player for about 2 months now. I have had very little problems with the lip-sync or drop-outs. The problem I'm having is it totally refuses to play certain dvd's. I'm getting the "C13.00" code which suppose toindicate a dirty disc but this was on a brand new disc (Rain Man). I cleaned off the disc but it didn't help. I took the disc back to Circuit City for an exchange for the same title, they played the bad disc on their 330 and played fine. I got the new disc home and put it in, the same thing happened again "c13.00" dirty disc code, %$#@ I was %$#*@^ off. I went back again and got a different title and it played fine. The same thing happened when I rented "Simon Birch" so I took it back and got a different copy and got the same message. This is very aggravating especially when there's an 8 year old wanting to watch "simon Birch" and you just payed $3.50 to watch a movie that won't play. I guess I'll have to hook up the old reliable vcr to use as back-up. The fix might be as simple as a minor adjustment or a good cleaning but after only 2 months of use I wouldn't think so.

I've had the player for about three weeks now. Not one problem, no lip sync, sounds great. As usual, Sony has a great remote. I only wish there was some notification when several camera angles exist for a scene. Maybe there is and I don't know about it. This is my second DVD player, and overall I think it is great. Highly recommended.

First my confession: My real joy is hi-end audio, however; I cannot ignore the DVD issue any longer! No, the Sony S-330 or any other DVD player I've heard at any price, does not compete with my high-end cd player despite Chain store salemans ridiculous claims! Combo systems always bring compromise, in my opinion, but at this low entrance price, I believe it bests any VHS of the same value which I was considering initially........
This is my first DVD player. I am a plug and play type of video person. Just put in the disc and watch it! Unlike my audio system, I am not into splitting hairs over performance and features at a $499.00 CDN retail price. I have not encountered any of the problems listed in previous reviews, no matter what DVD I played. No lip-sync, No drop-outs, NOTHING, just good quality picture and reasonble sound and features. I feel that first runs of this product may have had these inherited problems, however; I'm sure Sony has been aware of them right from the start and "silently" corrected the internal machine on later production runs. It's all the player I need for my limited interest in movies and if something comes along which really smokes it in the near future, it will be an excellent addition to my son's bedroom!

I purchased this player several days ago after taking back a non-working Toshiba 3109 (see my review). The player feels better built although lighter than what I like. Things I don't like about the player are:a) the remote layout; I have a Sony big screen TV and having to flip the little switch to control either unit is cumbersome.
b) the video quality; Playing "The Mask of Zorro" I could see pixeling (worst than DTV on a rainy day), grainy image quality in widescreen and fullscreen mode, lots of little vertical lines as if watching a movie in an old theater. I guess that a big screen is not forgiving on video quality.
c) lip/sync; After pausing the same movie to answer the phone the audio was one second ahead of the video.

Well, it's going back to the store today. After all the other glitches in my Sony DTV box this marks the end of Sony in my house.

If you want a good DVD player look somewhere else.

We own a Sony DVP-S330 and we are having troubles with the audio cutting out and the lip-sync getting out of time. When the problem first was showing up we thought that our Sony reciever "STR-DE825" might be over heating, so we bought a better rack to allow more air between the equipment, but the problem persisted to affect about 1 in 3 movies we watched. At this time we returned the DVP-S330 for a replacement and we watched about 10 movies before the audio went out of sync again we are thinking of trying an optical cable to see if it helps our problem but after reading some of the other reviews i believe Sony might have a fault in their product. We also get a half second hesitation on some movies while the machine flips layers. I am giving a rating of 3 only because the machine is great when it works.

i recently bought the dvp-s330 and i played 4 movies one after another,and it did fine but it did got warm after a while.the sound is wonderful and the picture is great.i really enjoy movies with the widescreen feature cause it doesnt struggle at all!some other players do that ALLOT!like rca and panasonic there dvd players are meant for 19-20 inch tv's.players like sony's or onkyo's or denon or any other company that specializes on home theater equipment are considered best players for not struggling on any type of dvd movies letterbox or any other format.

I RECENTLY BOUGHT THE DVP-S330 AND IT PLAYS VERY WELL.ONE DAY I PLAYED 4 MOVIES AND IT DID GOT WARM BUT I CALLED SONY AND THEY SAID THAT IT WAS NORMAL.IN THE MOVIE GODZILLA THERES A FREEZE IN CHAPTER 16.BUT I FOUND OUT THAT IT WAS THE DISC IT SELF CAUSE I WENT TO TWEETERS ETC. AND PLAYED THAT SAME DISC ON SONY'S TOP OF THE LINE PLAYER AND IT DID THE SAME THING.DID ANYBODY EVER WONDERED THAt MAYBE ITS THE DISC AND THE WAY IT WAS MADE?I ALSO TRIED PLAY THE DISC ON ONKYO'S BEST RATINGS PLAYER AND IT DID THE SAME THING.THIS DVD PLAYER IS A GOOD BUY.IT ALSO HAS A GREAT MENU AND SUPERB PICTURE.IF BUYING THIS DVD PLAYER I WOULD CONSIDER GETTING MONSTER CABLE FOR THE S VIDEO INPUT

Excellent features,superb value for its brand

none

This is a very good DVD Player and I would recommened it to any intermediate consumer

Similar Products Used:

none

Ability to play both scratched disks and dual layer disks

None with firmware version 2.210 or above.

This is a rather lengthy discussion about my experience into DVD players. After 15 years my Magnavox CD player finally died. Time to buy a new one. After some checking of prices, I discovered that for a few dollars more I can upgrade to a DVD player. All well and fine. My expectation for any DVD player it to play any CD or DVD completely though. I will allow for pause for layer changes. But lip sync, lock up or drop outs are not acceptable. My old CD player and VCR do not have these problems so why should newer technology.

Magnavox 825:
Since my Magnavox CD player lasted 15 years without a problem, I decided to choose Magnavox again; model 825. I paid $229 at Circuit City. Played several disks include the Batman disk that came with the player. Problems began when I rented Homeward Bound for the kids. Every so often the picture and sound would just freeze up. The real bad part is, it was not reproducible. Next came Con Air. After the layer change, the picture and sound would breakup and freeze and the disk would eventually stop playing. Also while playing audio CDs the sound would randomly dropout for a half a second or so. Again, not reproducible. Defective player I thought, I’ll just exchange it for a new one. Got the 2nd 825 home and tried the same Con Air disk (this was now my standard difficult disk) and guess what, the same thing happened; It could not play the second layer of the disk. Boy was this disappointing, back to Circuit City for more adventures. (Total DVD Players 2 - Magnavox 2)


Proscan 8680:
I promptly got a refund for my 2nd Magnavox player and with the Con Air disk in hand, walked over to the DVD player section again. The salesman showed me the Proscan 8680 DIVX player. I initially did not like it because of the DIVX feature, but at $250 it was hard to beat. Put the Con Air test disk in, quickly jumped to the second layer and voila, no lock ups. Out the door and back home with the Proscan. That night I sat down to finally watch Con Air in it entirety. About three fourths the way though the movie, lockup gain. Next day, back to Circuit City again; this must just be a bad player. Exchanged it for the same model, came home to really finally watch this disk. Locked up gain about three fourths the way through. Now, is the disk bad??? Pause… Hmmm… I will keep this player for a week or so and rent a lot of movies (30 day return policy) and see how it goes.
Played several more movies no problem. Then came Willi Wonka. This disk did have some scratches on it, but nothing I would consider abuse. The Proscan locked up and could not play three of the chapters. Well now what, maybe that Con Air disk wasn’t bad and the Proscan just has problems with scratched disks. Back to Circuit City for a refund. (Total DVD Players 4 - Proscan 2, Magnavox 2)

Sony S330:
Now free from the wrath of bad DVD players, I started my search over again. With the Willi Wonka disk in hand, I again walked back to the DVD player section at Circuit City. I liked the Sony models but for $350 it seemed a bit expensive, but might as well try the disk in it anyway. Put the disk in and jumped to the offending chapters and as if by magic it played though flawlessly. I repeated the chapters several times; worked every time. Now life is good, but $350. Time to shop around for pricing. Sears had a sale on the S330; $330. I ask the salesman if the lip sync problem had been fixed yet. He had not heard of any lip sync problem. I figured I’d give the unit a try and if it did have the problem, deal with it then. The unit I got had serial number 0196891. I watched several movies OK, then came RONIN; lip sync problem. Stop and restart corrected it, but to me this was not acceptable. I made a call to Sony. The rude lady at customer service knew nothing of any lip sync problem but did offer to have the unit picked up for repair. I did not want to send the unit in, unless I knew that the problem would be fixed. I decided to wait.
Checked Circuit City’s web site, they now dropped the price to $300. I returned the lip sync plugged S330 back to Sears and decided to another chance on later serial number one from Circuit City and save $30 in the process. Checked the serial number at the store 0262393, higher than the old one, this is good. The serial number is located on the box directly above the UPC bar code. Got the unit home and check the firmware version (Title, Clear, then ON from the remote). It was 2.21. This means I should have no problems with lip sync. As I understand it 2.1 fixed the problem. Looks like I have a keeper. This unit finally meets my standard of playing DVD and CDs completely through without locking up, drop outs, or lip sync problems. (Total DVD Players 6 - Proscan 2, Magnavox 2, Sony 2)

So it appears Sony fixed the problem between serial numbers 0196891 and 0262393. I just wish Sony would be more up front about the lip sync problems and fixes for it. It’s a great player otherwise. Proscan- sorry you could not play scratched disks; very noise transport. Magnavox- total disappointment considering my fondness for my old CD player (anyone remember the FD2040 2nd gen); has many problems playing dual layered disks.

Similar Products Used:

Philips 825
Proscan 8680

Ability to play all discs; price and features

No dolby digital decoder; no component video out

Just got this one from Best Buy -- serial number is 0200000. The latest firmware is installed, and I ran Matrix, Wizard of Oz, and Bug's Life in a 32 hour marathon (don't ask!). No lip-sync problems, terrific video. On an RCA 46" projection TV, I set the audio for "Wide Range". Okay, but not real impressive (probably a good setting if hooked up to stereo speakers). Changed audio to "Standard" and sound is excellent. I recommend that you check the firmware revision number -- the latest (in my player) worked without any problem. For $290, I feel I got a great value...